Concepts of mental life across cultures: Primary analysis

Exploratory factor analysis using full datasets, Pearson correlations, and oblique transformations

In this notebook we conduct exploratory factor analyses (EFAs) on the datasets for our studies of concepts of mental life, in which each participants judged the various mental capacities of a particular target entity. We analyze datasets for adults and children from each of our five field sites: the US, Ghana, Thailand, China, and Vanuatu.

This notebook contains the results presented in the main text, in which we use Pearson correlations with our three-point response scale (no = 0, kinda = 0.5, yes = 1); see supplemental analyses for a version of these analyses treating kinda = yes = 1 and using tetrachoric correlations.

Adults

Samples

  country   n
       US 127
    Ghana 150
 Thailand 150
    China 136
  Vanuatu 148
    Total 711

Scale use

Factor retention: parallel analysis

Exploratory factor analysis

Factor loadings

Congruence

Bootstrapped congruence

Figure 3

Figure S2

Figure S3

Figure S4

Figure S5

Children

Samples

  country   n
       US 117
    Ghana 150
 Thailand 152
    China 131
  Vanuatu 143
    Total 693

Scale use

Factor retention: parallel analysis

Exploratory factor analysis

Factor loadings

Congruence

See All samples, below.

Bootstrapped congruence

Figure 4

All samples

Congruence

Figure 2

Jaccard Similarity

Figure S1

Developmental comparisons

Figures S6-S10

Figure 1, version 1

Figure 1, version 2 (included in main text)

Variance accounted for

Interfactor correlations

US ADULTS
          F1        F2        F3
F1 1.0000000 0.5114648 0.4805622
F2 0.5114648 1.0000000 0.5376676
F3 0.4805622 0.5376676 1.0000000

US CHILDREN
          F1        F2        F3
F1 1.0000000 0.3031865 0.4334098
F2 0.3031865 1.0000000 0.4856172
F3 0.4334098 0.4856172 1.0000000

GHANA ADULTS
          F1        F2        F3
F1 1.0000000 0.2725881 0.3444798
F2 0.2725881 1.0000000 0.2558207
F3 0.3444798 0.2558207 1.0000000

GHANA CHILDREN
          F1        F2        F3
F1 1.0000000 0.5790820 0.1747165
F2 0.5790820 1.0000000 0.3854114
F3 0.1747165 0.3854114 1.0000000

THAILAND ADULTS
          F1        F2        F3
F1 1.0000000 0.4142881 0.3218404
F2 0.4142881 1.0000000 0.4161488
F3 0.3218404 0.4161488 1.0000000

THAILAND CHILDREN
             F1         F2        F3           F4
F1  1.000000000 0.54189979 0.1468730 -0.008909088
F2  0.541899792 1.00000000 0.3169020  0.092978779
F3  0.146873030 0.31690205 1.0000000  0.269117295
F4 -0.008909088 0.09297878 0.2691173  1.000000000

CHINA ADULTS
          F1        F2        F3
F1 1.0000000 0.4590388 0.6187141
F2 0.4590388 1.0000000 0.3703614
F3 0.6187141 0.3703614 1.0000000

CHINA CHILDREN
          F1         F2        F3         F4
F1 1.0000000 0.51249526 0.3245885 0.25786749
F2 0.5124953 1.00000000 0.1524842 0.07635739
F3 0.3245885 0.15248416 1.0000000 0.13450834
F4 0.2578675 0.07635739 0.1345083 1.00000000

VANUATU ADULTS
         F1       F2
F1 1.000000 0.687325
F2 0.687325 1.000000

VANUATU CHILDREN
          F1        F2        F3
F1 1.0000000 0.3116574 0.5189923
F2 0.3116574 1.0000000 0.3362370
F3 0.5189923 0.3362370 1.0000000